White Hawk vineyard is located 2 miles north of Los Alamos on Cat Canyon Road in Santa Barbara County. Owned by the Henley family, White Hawk is situated at 900 feet elevation exactly 21 miles from the Pacific Ocean. In 1998 Jeff Newton planted the upper blocks of White Hawk to Syrah. While still a student at UC Davis, Tim met Jeff for the first time in 1986 at The Gainey Vineyard. Over the years Tim has studied the list of Santa Barbara County vineyards developed and managed by Jeff. For example, Jeff planted own-rooted Syrah at David Thompson's vineyard located roughly 3 miles southeast of White Hawk. Consequently, the White Hawk terroir was so popular with local winemakers that the Henley family had contracted the entire vineyard way before the first crop of Syrah was ever harvested. Case in point, Clos Mimi was put on a waiting list for fruit in 2000. The vineyard itself is a series of ancient sand dunes containing slopes of 15 to 45%. Clos Mimi purchases grapes from a 1.29-acre block planted 10 feet by 5 feet (871 vines per acre) to the UC Davis Syrah clone #6 grafted onto 140Ru rootstock. Ten-foot vine rows are the norm at White Hawk in order to minimize the hazards associated with driving tractors along steep, sandy contours. Soils here are identified as "Arnold sand" which contains excessively-drained sands that developed over soft sandstone. With yields kept under 2.5 tons per acre Clos Mimi will produce 1200 bottles per year starting with the 2002 vintage.